Tupelo left us on April 20th of 2012. She had an
atypical labor and her cervix failed to properly dilate. After I
worked on her for twenty minutes with no luck, as the kid was huge
and horribly twisted, she was rushed to the vet's. Our trusted vet
worked on her for around forty-five minutes before giving up, as the
kid was simply too large to be delivered vaginally. A c-section was
performed, and the kid did not survive. Tupelo went downhill the
next day (Friday), so I spent all day working on her and trying to
pull her through. My vet wanted her brought it to be hospitalized if
she was not seventy-five percent better by Saturday morning.
Unfortunately that was too late, as Tupelo died Friday night in our
arms. Necropsy suggests she passed of congestive heart failure,
however she was displaying symptoms of hypocalcemia. I was treating
her with oral calcium every two hours on Friday, but I feel it was
too little, too late. If I had it to do over again I would have
insisted she had
been returned to the vet's to be put on IV calcium. She has
left a huge hole in our hearts and our herd.

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Tupelo is an exceptional gal whom we
are so pleased to have. She's a very smoothly blended, upstanding
doe, who also boasts a long body, the correct width between her hocks
and chest floor, lovely angulation, open, well spring ribbing, and
extremely loose and thin dairy skin (which makes clipping a pain!).
She has fantastic withers but could be a touch tighter in the
shoulders and while her pasterns are short and strong her toes do
turn out ever so slightly and also could be a bit tighter. Her mammary is overall
extremely correct, with a high, widely attached rear udder, nice foreudder extension (though she does have a minor pocket
and shelf), a strong
MSL, and large, well placed teats when viewed from the rear. I
would like her to collapse a little more when milked down. At
the age of seven with six freshenings, Tupe is looking better than
ever - truly ageless.

Tupelo is also proving herself to
be just as good at being a brood doe as she is a show doe. She
now has four ADGA finished offspring, one of which is a daughter
with her 305 milking star, and one of which is a daughter that has
gone 4 x BDIS and appraised at EEEE 91 as a second freshener!

Tupelo
is an extremely proud and intelligent doe. She's both herd queen
over the does and - in her mind - herd queen over the petty humans.
When on the milkstand she'll become angry when her bucket dares run out
of grain and flings it to the floor, along with her neighbor's bucket if
she can, regardless of if they're finished with their grain. And
then if I scold her, she gives me big deer eyes with a "What, me?
But I'm so sweet and innocent!" look. She also very much
enjoys being displayed in the show ring - she will slip her head
into a show collar when it's held up, and sets herself up in the
ring, chewing her cud with her nose in the air the whole time.